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Pat Bridges, The ‘Eye’

A snowboarder’s snowboarder and one of the most influential persons in the game. He’s been called ‘The Eye’ and currently holds the title of Creative Director at SNOWBOARDER Mag. I just refer to him as Pat and he calls me Phipps (which is cool). I’d write a better forward but I’ve been missing a ton of school and homework the past week. Pat and I visited at The Launch 2014 last week at Seven Springs, PA.

JP: Since we’re at The Launch and there is some parental input and stuff, what’s like the most awsm freak attack a parent has put on you or SNOWBOARDER Magazine staff member?

Pat: We’ve never really had a freak attack. We have a lot of awesome parents! Todd Macklewicz would come, Ginger Krugmire would always come. We’ve had a lot of great parents come to The Launch and one of the best is Johan Malkowski, he’s the sales manager for Capita, C3, and Union, and he’s always there to help out and cheer the kids and get ski patrol when we need it. Overall on the parents side, I haven’t, there really hasn’t been a down side to it.

JP: Do you ever get a little bummed on Super Parents or get concerned when you witness kids getting a little roughed up mentally n stuff?

Pat: Well, listen… as a writer I try to read into the subtext of stuff and basically your first two questions are talking about parents. So as opposed to answering that question, I pose the question to you, ‘Do YOU get bummed out at super parents??’

JP: (Nodding), a little bit, yeah.

Being Pat.

JP: Are you going to be giving any handplant teaching sessions while we’re here? I understand you’ve got some handplant game and I’ve sorta learned Miller Flips, is that a good building block?

Pat:Well, when the knees go, all you have is the elbows, and that’s why I handplant. I find it easy and it keeps me young. I won’t be giving any lessons because they’re too easy to be taught.

JP: Who’s the one person in snowboarding we can least afford to be without and why?

Pat:(Pause) ..I would say Terry Kidwell. Um, because..he was the guy who set the path for not just the rest of us through the long tale of DNA and the history of the fabric of snowboarding. Terry Kidwell was the most influential on the most influential people. So HE inspired the people that inspired the future generations, so without somebody like Terry Kidwell, who unfortunately hasn’t had the rightful place bestowed upon him, and our sport has taken for granted all he has done for it thirty years ago. So unfortunately, while we see his legacy everyday, we don’t see him acknowledged for it.

JP: The Launch had been at Bear for the past two seasons and the move to 7 Springs was at least weather related in part. How did, and at what point were you like, man we gotta make a move and maybe share some of your thoughts during that time.

Pat: I (pause).., with Bear Mountain actually when talking about people, and as far as places go Bear Mountain is crucial to the lifeblood of our sport as far as how forward thinking and how supportive they are of snowboarding and how healthy their approach to snowboarding is, as far as thinking outside the box, and doing their diligence to keeping the bar moving higher and moving forward. The fact of the matter is, you know, that accounts for all different ability levels of snowboarding. SNOWBOARDER has a great relationship with Bear Mountain, they’re like..family. It’s weird, it’s like my home resort but I only get to go ride there two or three days a year. Yet, it is, it’s like my home mountain at this point.

The builders there (Bear Mountain) are people who had their hand in shaping all of SNOWBOARDER Mag’s events, The Launch, before that Superpark, and Ms. Superpark. As far as the growth of Superpark, they were crucial to the growth of that build. And, we have a great working relationship. I wanna do events there because they always go off, they always go above and beyond for us, for them it becomes something more personal when we work together because we have such respect for each other in such a close relationship. So it’s great.

The move (to 7 Springs), it was 100% weather related, on both sides. The weather wasn’t great in soCal this season, it’s trying all over particularly Tahoe, but certainly southern California as well. And well, 7 Springs it’s like Bear Mountain of the mid-Atlantic. These guys are some of the best park builders in the world and this year they happened to get handed a great deck of cards, lotta snow, cold temps, they didn’t have a thaw, and I’ve worked 7 Springs, they’ve had covers, multiple covers, they’ve built multiple cover features for SNOWBOARDER magazine. We worked with 7 Springs and it turned out to be an awesome opportunity with the weather this year.

JP: What is the worst thing about the internet as it relates to snowboarding?

Pat: Worst thing about the internet as it relates to snowboarding, is…(pause). There is.. the disposable aspect and the over saturation of media has affected resilience. You know, just how much an edit has ability to breathe. Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago when somebody put out a video you watched that video, five people in a room, twice before riding, twice after. I mean, that created a community around a common experience. Now its all individual and now there’s so much of it that, you know, whatever happens today is gonna be forgotten because of what happens tomorrow. Our society has bestowed upon media ‘different and new’ and its taken precedence over ‘good and great’.

JP: What is jibbing’s equivalent of a method?

Pat: I guess, either a press, or a front board?

JP: If you were commissioned construct the second coming of the Forum 8, who are some of the riders that would be at the top of your wish list?

Pat: I’d have Hans and Nils Mindnich. I did it, well with the SNOWBOARDER movie,

I would get the Mindiches, Ayumu Hirano, I would get Ben Ferguson, I’d get Sam Taxwood, Spencer Schubert, Zach Hale. It would be pretty much the riders we got (pause), Blake Paul, the guys we got for the SNOWBOARDER movie coming out this fall. That’s pretty much my closest opportunity I had for putting together a ‘Forum 8’. And that’s where its at. I apologize if there’s anybody I didn’t get.. Garrett Warnick. He’d be in.

JP: Any questions that maybe I should have asked you that I need to cover but didn’t?